Thanks for all the great replies and encouragement, it's really appreciated. I mean to do a post about the general status of the car, going over things area by area, but a combination of being busy and disorganized, has pushed that back. I think I'll just post about areas as I get to work on them.



Wow, Ted, I'm a bit overwhelmed. I'd love to share the cars story with people I think it's fascinating, and it was stories as much as the cars them selves that got me so hooked on the hobby. I don't think I could write my way out of a paper, bag, but I'd definitely consider writing an article, especially if I get replies to the various feelers I have out there looking to find out more about here for the blank areas.

More to come shortly, so I'll just leave you all with this teaser photo:

Good luck restoring you Crown Victoria, my every first collector car and restoration was a black and white 55 solid top crown built in Summerville, Mass. One piece of advise do not convert it to 12 volts, you will cause more problems than you will  fix, plus if you ever had to sell it the 12 volt convertion will keep the true collectors from buying it.

"Came too close to dying to stop living now!"

Prof,
Thanks for sharing your car's history and photos. Very cool! Hope you're able to uncover the missing fifteen years of the car's existence.
I highly recommend that you get a genuine Ford factory workshop manual for 1955 and the '49 to '59 Ford parts books of which there are two, a text volume and an illustrations volume. You will find them invaluable!
I would seriously consider keeping the six volt system. There's nothing inherently wrong with it and you'll save yourself the grief and expense of a twelve volt change over. Changing the overdrive system to 12v is expensive. Please make it operate the way it was designed to, you won't regret it! Sometimes getting the system to work is as simple as cleaning and adjusting the contact points in the relay, solenoid or governor. There are six volt halogen headlight bulbs available that are nice and bright if you intend to do any night driving.
I think that those front fender braces are a an excellent addition. I don't know about a '55. but the entire front clip on my '57 is held on by only seven bolts (if memory serves) with one being in the front center and three on the rear of each fender. With our crumbling infrastructure's  pockmarked and damaged streets and roads, my fenders shake when driving on the worst of them. I am now considering fabricating a pair for my car!
Best wishes and please keep us posted,




"FREE SAMPLE"

Love the story and the history.   Knowing the vehicle history really brings them to life for me!   And the uniqueness of the metric speedo and the import braces are really cool. 

Don't set a date for the car to be done and expect to meet it if you intend to do it right.  It leads to disappointment and/or cutting corners (JMHO). 

And I'm especially jealous of your 3-speed OD.  Wish my '55 Fairlane had that instead of the FOM.  My father was a huge fan of the 3 speed OD.  Had it on his '56 custom, his '65 custom that he special ordered and even on his '66 F100.  I also had that in my '57 custom in the 70's.  I have considered changing out the tranny on the '55 but also like to keep things as originally equipped, so never made any move to do it.

Great introduction.  Thanks for sharing the history on this Crown as it indeed does have a history.  This would make a great article for the Y-Block Magazine so please consider doing that when the time comes.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Welcome. Great car and great history. Us old guys really appreciate young guys taking an interest. Keep us posted, and ask away. There's great resources here, and "this and that" often provides better answers than dedicated Ford sites.

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

yeah the whole interior needs to be replaced, it's pretty beat up 


as you can see. all the vinyl in the interior matches so was probably done all at once sometime in the past, but the headliner dosen't match, so it was done either before or after the rest, it doesn't look original to me.  

The door panels and arm rest on the car
 are not original to a crown vic Carl

Honestly I think the white is the factory original color, and Red was sprayed over the original black.

carl (6/4/2016)

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The cross braces under the hood were used on the 56 Ford 4 door hardtop cars,i have never seen them a crown vic.

Interesting, I'd love to see pictures of that, to compare them. 

Edit: This '56 Victoria has them as well in the pictures, and they look the same as mine so they must have been a factory item, but why some have them and some don't I don't know. http://www.hemmings.com/magazine/hcc/2008/06/1955-1956-Ford-Fairlane-Victoria/1641989.html